Divergent flux path magnetic actuation is a technique employed to move and magnetically hold an armature in electromechanical devices. Permanent magnets are employed in a manner that places their magnetic field in a bi-stable state to allow control coils to divert the magnetic field in one of two directions within the surrounding magnetic material. Examples of bi-stable permanent magnet actuators include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,022,450; 3,381,181; 5,365,210; 6,265,956 B1; J.P. Patent Application 7,037,461, each having a magnetic housing with pole end closures incasing a permanent magnet and two controls coils about a moveable central pole piece or armature with the control coils placed one on either side of the permanent magnet. The control coils form a single current directional path to produce a single directional path magnetic field to divert the permanent magnet's magnetic field in one of two directions from the permanent magnet to bi-directionally attract the armature to the pole end closures of the magnetic housing as done in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,022,450; 3,381,181; 5,365,210; 6,265,956 B1; J.P. Patent Application 7,037,461.
The aforementioned prior art divergent flux path magnetic actuation techniques employ switches to control the current direction from a power source. For large actuators, the power source can become quite large due to the required energy drain per time to the control coils. An energy savings method to greatly reduce the required energy drain per time from a power source can be achieved by using low power input from a power source to charge a capacitor and discharge the current from the capacitor into the control coils using a H-bridge to control the current direction and pulse time.
Further, a divergent flux path magnetic actuator can be enhanced for greater linear motion distance, output force or increased electrical efficiency through the adaptation of other force mechanisms that do not require electrical power for further energy savings. For example, springs can be employed as an additional force mechanism, where the springs store and release energy as needed by the actuator.